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Presidential Debates: Past and Present

Numerous political debates have already taken place in advance of the 2012 presidential election. As the parties pick their candidates and the debates continue, look to the past for a broader perspective on the speeches and strategies taking place today. To help, we’ve rounded up a number of presidential debate resources.

Lesson PlansPBS Newshour Extra offers resources on current events for use in the classroom by teachers and students. Below we list two of the lesson plans on presidential debates from the site.

Presidential Debate Primer
This lesson plan draws from issues that came up during the 2008 election, but its objective, to “provide students with a valuable opportunity to learn how the candidates communicate their policy positions and leadership qualities to the American electorate” is broad enough to be applicable in the classroom today.